Favre steals Canton spotlight

New Hall of Famer to loom large over Packers-Colts

CANTON, Ohio — Two of the NFL’s top quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck, will be on hand for Sunday’s Hall of Fame game.

The quarterback who will get the most attention won’t take a snap.

That, of course, will be Brett Favre, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night. As the featured name in a class of eight, center stage has belonged to the record-setting Favre all weekend.

No one begrudges that. Not the other living inductees: Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Kevin Greene, Orlando Pace and Eddie DeBartolo Jr. And certainly not the families of the late Ken Stabler and Dick Stanfel, both of whom were nominated by the seniors committee.

So when Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers — yes, the franchise Favre helped revitalize in the 1990s — and Luck’s Indianapolis Colts, who won the 2007 Super Bowl with Dungy as coach and Harrison as the leading receiver, face off to open the NFL’s preseason, Favre figures to still be in the spotlight.

“I mean, the excitement for me is being a part of the environment to watch Brett and Kevin go in,” said Rodgers, who has won two MVPs, one fewer than Favre had. “I don’t know if anybody’s real, real excited about a fifth preseason game, except for the people making the money on that, but it’ll be exciting to be there because there’s so much history and tradition surrounding Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”

It’s quite possible neither quarterback will play Sunday, particularly Luck. He missed nine games last season with a variety of injuries, including a lacerated kidney. Coach Chuck Pagano said he would wait until game day on Luck.

“I may wake up Sunday morning and decide he may not play,” Pagano said.

There are benefits to benching Luck — it would ensure keeping him healthy. And there are benefits to letting him get on the field, even briefly.

“Yeah, there are certain things in games that are just hard to replicate in practice,” Luck said. “Whether it’s the crowd noise, an official spotting the ball a certain way, certain types of weather, going against a different defense, having some type of a ‘game plan.’ We don’t game plan for our defense at training camp.

“Bringing the new guys into the fold and seeing what everybody’s game-day demeanor/attitude/body language is, I think is important when you are sort of forging your team.”

Lions coach Jim Caldwell declined to comment on the nature of the injury.

BEARS — Hroniss Grasu, who was to be Chicago’s starting center this season, sustained a knee injury that “looked fairly serious,” coach John Fox said.

Grasu fell to the ground without being touched during Saturday’s practice. He grabbed at his right knee before being placed on the trainer’s cart and taken off the field.

STEELERS — Running back Le’Veon Bell says he is ready to assume a full workload.

Bell told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that his surgically repaired right knee feels “crazy strong” and is not hindering him.

Bell, 24, suffered torn medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee on Nov. 1, curtailing his season after six games.

RAMS — Case Keenum was named Los Angeles’ starting quarterback over rookie Jared Goff for the first preseason game against Dallas on Aug. 13.

Coach Jeff Fisher said, however, that Goff — the top pick in this year’s draft — will play as much as a full half against the Cowboys.

SEAHAWKS — Tight end Cooper Helfet, who is facing surgery to repair a cracked bone in his foot, was waived.

GENE J. PUSKAR/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Brett Favre talks to reporters Friday in Canton, Ohio. The Packers great was inducted into the Hall on Saturday.